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Did anyone buy ZDSimulator? Need help...

Alright, so I demo'd ZDSimulator and went to attempt to buy it today. I'm having issues. For one, everything's in Google Chrome auto-translated Russian to English Engrish, so it's a bit hard to navigate at times.

Second, when I went to pay through OnPay, the only option that I saw to pay in USD was through LiqPay, so I went to do that, and it took me to ANOTHER payment site. I Google'd LiqPay to see if it was a legit site, and there seem to be a lot of people saying it's a scam.

So, now I'm concerned about that, but I'm not sure if I can pay through OnPay with a Visa from the USA. Not only that, the Google translation for the Visa payments keeps going back and forth between 436-ish Rubles and 436-ish USD, so I'm terrified I'm going to incur a massive charge for a $12 game.

Well, it's tough. Not knowing Russian, I mostly had to figure out what to do by discerning what I could out of the manual after I ran it through Google Translate (so many different controllers, all with the same name since Google doesn't translate well T_T) and from the keys that came up in the tool tips (also in Russian, but easy enough to follow).

It's really well done and pretty realistic, even requiring you to fix anything that breaks, and I really enjoy that. I just wish I could support the guy without having to jump through hoops to buy it. :/

Not knowing Russian, I mostly had to figure out what to do by discerning what I could out of the manual after I ran it through Google Translate

:O you're a hero! seriously I was expecting the demo to have at least basic english localization. Looks like the buy button 12$ is the only thing they cared to translate!

Originally Posted by johnki

even requiring you to fix anything that breaks, and I really enjoy that. II just wish I could support the guy without having to jump through hoops to buy it. :/

Yes the amount of realism in the engine simulation looks fantastic, and it also seems to have an option to disable breakdowns and have the engine ready to go with a keypress, which are thoughtful additions.

Maybe you should drop a mail to the author, let him know there would be interest for the product with proper localization and at least one trusted payment processor.

:O you're a hero! seriously I was expecting the demo to have at least basic english localization. Looks like the buy button 12$ is the only thing they cared to translate!

Well, the startup screen (not including drop-down menus) is in English, but that's it. It also has a Russian setting. Everything else is Russian.

Originally Posted by alms

Yes the amount of realism in the engine simulation looks fantastic, and it also seems to have an option to disable breakdowns and have the engine ready to go with a keypress, which are thoughtful additions.

Yeah, he went all out, from what I can tell.

Originally Posted by alms

Maybe you should drop a mail to the author, let him know there would be interest for the product with proper localization and at least one trusted payment processor.

Ah, thanks for reminding me. I was so frustrated with OnPay/LiqPay last night that I totally forgot to email him.

EDIT: And yeah, I wish I knew my $12 would be going towards a localization.

So I emailed him, and he doesn't provide Paypal because it's gotten some complaints, whereas LiqPay hasn't. Also, it appears that it hasn't been fully localized because he's unsure of how an audience from the US will respond to it when put up against Railworks and Trainz.

EDIT: He says he's going to try to translate the beginner mode to English! Going to put up with OnPay/LiqPay and I'll report back. Just hearing other people have had success with it is definitely easing my fears a bit. I think LiqPay's detractors may just use it as a currency exchange service, which I think it may also be.

EDIT2: My card was rejected by both LiqPay and Uniteller which appear to be the two payment processors that OnPay uses (what the hell is the use of having OnPay again?) and I have no idea why. There's money on the card, and it's valid. Oh well. :/

So, in case anyone's interested, this was probably the most annoying activation process ever. I ended up asking on another forum if someone could "data smuggle" the game for me, and he said it was probably the most annoying payment processor he's ever used, and it worked for him.

After I waited several hours for the payment to process, I then waited 10 hours or so for the activation email to show up. When it didn't, I emailed the author again, who told me that I had to go into the game, click "buy the full version" and then submit my email and activation code from the game (automatically put in) to apply for an activation key. I know it worked because when I screwed up my email the first time, it said I hadn't paid.

Then, I waited another few hours for the activation email to show up. Instead of being sent an actual key, I was sent a .key file attached to an email that had to go into the folder for the game.

Currently, said registration seems to only sort of have worked. Nothing's changed. There are no new trains or routes added (to be fair, I think I have to visit their add-ons site and get more, but I'm not sure) but the "Buy Full Version" thing isn't pulsing anymore, so I think that means that it registered correctly. I'm downloading the update to see if it changes anything, but I'm thinking it won't.

What's more, only a few trains worked to begin with, even though all of them that were listed were supposed to, but now it crashes when I try to start using any of them.

EDIT2: The update fixed the crashes.

I'm pretty frustrated with the experience, but given how original the sim is, and how much attention has gone into the detail involved, I'm glad that somehow I was able to support them.

I am for sure (and even went back to RW3), if it's not too much hassle for you, please do keep posting about it. If you can't say publicly what the other forum is, maybe drop me a PM?

Normally, it wouldn't matter, but the person that actually bought the game was so irritated with the payment processor that I don't exactly want others to end up asking.

On another note, I'm going to try and finish fixing the translation errors and stuff in the manual and put it up here, and maybe write a guide on getting a train started based off of the beginner thing (will be difficult since I can't read Russian, but between the manual and the keys presented, should be able to figure it out).

After that, I might try and get in on a multiplayer session...or not. Trying to decide how difficult it would be. You need to be able to communicate over Vent, and given the only language the game is in, I'm just concerned that I'd end up either being a detractor, or something similar, but when I know more about the game, I might give it a shot.

Normally, it wouldn't matter, but the person that actually bought the game was so irritated with the payment processor that I don't exactly want others to end up asking.

Oh don't be worried, I'm not going to go around begging for favors. I was just thinking the other forum was rail-related and something I might be interested into, but nevermind.

Originally Posted by johnki

On another note, I'm going to try and finish fixing the translation errors and stuff in the manual and put it up here, and maybe write a guide on getting a train started based off of the beginner thing

That's a great idea, keep up the good work!

Originally Posted by johnki

given the only language the game is in, I'm just concerned that I'd end up either being a detractor, or something similar, but when I know more about the game, I might give it a shot.

The problem with a number of former eastern block countries is they still are an island in the net.

hello guys. We (support team of ZDsimulator) started to translate simulator to english and create english version of site (of course with payment through PayPal). We plan to make it by February '13. So...
1) We can help everyone to pay through PayPal.
2) We look for people to whom the simulator is interesting and they want to take part in testing of the English version.
Contacts (end of article): http://zdsimulator.com.ua/kontakty